Brown Plans to Hold Education Summit
Assembly Speaker Willie Brown said Friday he plans to convene an “education summit” during the first few months of 1994, using as a model the economic summit that helped shape the California Legislature’s widely praised session this year.
“Clearly, the school systems need to be reformed,” Brown told about 150 business leaders at a luncheon in Woodland Hills. The event was sponsored by the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn.
The proposed education summit, which he said would probably be held in February or March, could not come at a more pivotal time for schools in the nation’s most populous state.
National test scores released last month ranked California fourth-graders the worst readers in the country, tied for last place with their counterparts in Mississippi. Advocates of breaking up the Los Angeles Unified School District have pledged to redouble their efforts next year. And voters will decide Nov. 2 whether the state should issue vouchers for private education.
Brown argued that the Proposition 174 voucher plan would eliminate the chance to reform, without first dismantling, the public school system.
“A dramatic no vote (on Proposition 174) will ensure that a reform summit would have credibility,” Brown said.
He said reshaping public education would be one of his top priorities next year.
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